21st Century Fox is declining to comment on an explosive new report from New York magazine’s Gabriel Sherman that says Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly told lawyers she was also harassed by Fox News CEO and chairman Roger Ailes. “According to two sources briefed on parent company 21st Century Fox’s outside probe of the Fox News executive, led by New York–based law firm Paul, Weiss, Kelly has told investigators that Ailes made unwanted sexual advances toward her about ten years ago when she was a young correspondent at Fox.

Spokespeople for both the network and the parent company were not available for immediate comment. An official announcement was said to be imminent, this person said.

Ailes departs under a cloud. Gretchen Carlson, the former “Fox & Friends” anchor who left the network in June, filed a lawsuit in New Jersey earlier this month alleging Ailes had harassed her and derailed her career. Ailes had in a previous statement denied the charges. More women came forward alleging similar treatment by Ailes during his time as a producer in the decades before he set up shop at Fox News.

The final blow seemed to come on Tuesday: a report in New York magazine alleging that Megyn Kelly, one of the network’s primetime stars, had been the victim of unwanted sexual advances in her earlier days at the network. Those claims have not been independently verified, but the report seems to have played a role in determining the viability of Ailes’ tenure.

A posting on Drudge Report suggested Ailes could receive as much as $40 million as part of a settlement. Ailes was believed to be working under a contract with a term that expired in 2018.

Roger Bacon, whose son Matthew was killed by a roadside bomb in Basra in 2005, said he had listened in amazement as Mr Blair delivered a 6,000-word statement in response to the Chilcot Report.

“I listened,” said Mr Bacon, “And I listened, and listened and listened as he went on and on and on.

“I began to feel that actually what was happening was that I was hearing Iraq Report Mark II – one that was completely different to the report Sir John Chilcot has just published.”

“I was amazed really,” added Mr Bacon, a former police officer. “I knew he was going to make a statement, but then he started going into such forensic detail, disappearing down the road of what was happening now and what was happening in the future. It was as if he was writing Iraq Report II. It was one huge justification for his actions.”

Earlier Mr Bacon had revealed that he and other bereaved relatives were considering legal action against the former Prime Minister, at a press conference where the sister of one dead soldier called Mr Blair “the world’s worst terrorist”.

Former Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond said he would like to see Mr Blair investigated by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for a crime of aggression and face parliamentary action to stop him holding public office again.

And a former director of public prosecutions said the report indicated Mr Blair could face charges of misconduct in public office.

Lord Macdonald of River Glaven said it “seemed very likely” Mr Blair has “roundly abused” the trust placed in him by the public and that he had twisted the evidence that provided the justification for going to war.

After listening to Mr Blair, Mr Bacon laughed out loud at the ex-Prime Minister’s insistence that the Chilcot Report stated that Parliament and Cabinet had not been misled.

He directed Mr Blair to Sir John’s statement that: “We have also concluded that the judgments about the severity of the threat posed by Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction – WMD – were presented with a certainty that was not justified.”

Mr Bacon, who was awarded the British Empire Medal for his work helping other bereaved service families, said: “We were misled and the report effectively says so in black and white.” …

Mr Blair’s press conference performance came after Mr Bacon’s wife Maureen had predicted to The Independent: “I am sure he [Mr Blair] will be well rehearsed again when the report comes out.”

Last March, Mr and Mrs Bacon had travelled to Iraq, to the spot where their son was killed by an improvised explosive device (IED).

Rejecting Mr Blair’s insistence that he would “never, ever accept that those troops who got injured or gave their lives did so in vain,” Mr Bacon said: “Having been on the ground, meeting people out there and seeing something of it, all I can say is that I do not think that what occurred in Iraq was worthwhile.

“Do I feel that Matthew lost his life in a worthwhile cause? The answer is no.”

TONY BLAIR took Britain into war in Iraq before all “peaceful options for disarmament had been exhausted,” Sir John Chilcot said yesterday in the damning conclusion to his seven-year inquiry: here.

TONY BLAIR should be forced out of the Labour Party following the Chilcot Inquiry’s scathing assessment of his involvement in the Iraq invasion, an anti-war group said yesterday after paying respects to dead soldiers: here.

She also claims co-host Steve Doocy engaged in a pattern of condescending treatment.

07/06/2016 12:23 pm ET

NEW YORK — Former “Fox & Friends” co-host Gretchen Carlson alleged in an explosive lawsuit filed Wednesday that Fox News Chairman Roger Ailes fired her for rebuffing his sexual advances and challenging a sexist newsroom culture.

Carlson, who spent 11 years at the network, described being ostracized and marginalized by Fox News for pushing back against condescending treatment. After seven and a half years as a co-host on “Fox & Friends,” the top-rated cable morning news show, Carlson was reassigned in 2013 to an early afternoon time slot. Fox News terminated her employment on June 23.

In the suit, Carlson claims she tried addressing what she considered to be discriminatory treatment during a September 2015 meeting with Ailes, who allegedly responded that their problems could have been better solved if they had a sexual relationship.

“I think you and I should have had a sexual relationship a long time ago and then you’d be good and better and I’d be good and better,” Ailes told Carlson, according to the suit.

In the suit, Carlson accused Ailes, one of the most powerful figures in media and Republican politics, of engaging in persistently sexist behavior. She said he ogled her in his office, asked her to turn around to view her backside, and commented repeatedly on her outfits and her legs.

She also said “Fox & Friends” co-host Steve Doocy engaged in a “pattern and practice of severe and pervasive sexual harassment” that included “mocking her during commercial breaks, shunning her off air, refusing to engage with her on air, belittling her contributions to the show.”

Fox News Sources: Gretchen Carlson Wasn’t The First Roger Ailes Victim. “He told me that if he was thinking of hiring a woman, he’d ask himself if he would fuck her, and if he would, then he’d hire her to be on-camera”: here.

Can the Murdochs Contain the Damage From the Ailes Investigation? Here.

Solicitor Geraldine McCool said the firm had been contacted by press on Wednesday over the allegations surrounding high-profile military inquests in 2006 and 2007. …

And a lawyer for Rose Gentle, whose son Fusilier Gordon Gentle was killed in Iraq in 2004, said he had contacted police to find out if the phones of Ms Gentle and other families were targeted. Steven Heffer, of Collyer Bristow Solicitors, said: “It is imperative that the families get to the bottom of this issue very quickly as any delay only adds to their grief and suffering. I am hoping the police will deal with their requests for information quickly and sympathetically.” …

Yesterday it was announced the paper would be shut down, with its last edition to be published on Sunday. Today David Cameron‘s former Communications chief, and former News of the World editor, Andy Coulson, is reported to be facing arrest as part of the investigation into the hacking. Mr Coulson was recruited by the Prime Minister after resigning as editor of the paper four years ago when one of its journalists and a private investigator were jailed for accessing voice-messages.

The International Criminal Court has already indicated that Tony Blair, who took the country to war, will not face prosecution as the decision to go to war in Iraq “falls outside the court’s jurisdiction.”

Julia Nicholson, whose son Gary died when his plane was shot down in 2005, said she was “absolutely disgusted,” adding: “I’m not going because it will be a whitewash.”

She accused Tony Blair of having “blood on his hands” and warned “he will have covered his back and [then US president George W] Bush’s back.”

And Janice Procter, whose 18-year-old son Michael Trench was one of the youngest Britons to be killed in the conflict, said that Mr Blair had “put 179 kids to the slaughter. There’s no justice.”

Ms Procter said she would not attend the launch as the report would not bring her any comfort or closure.

“If it’s a whitewash I will be hugely disappointed, no question of that.”

And David Godfrey, whose grandson Daniel Coffey was killed in 2007, branded Mr Blair a “war criminal” and said “he has to be held responsible.”

Lord Butler, who carried out the 2004 review of the intelligence on Iraqi weapons of mass destruction (WMD), said the legality of the war “wasn’t actually put to [Mr Chilcot] and, of course, his review team wasn’t equipped properly to deal with that legal issue.”

“I have high hopes for him,” Kelly told the crowd. “Despite the tweets and all the rest of it. There’s much to admire about Donald Trump.” Remember, this is the same Trump who once described Kelly as having “blood coming out of her … wherever”: here.